Virginia Tech's 2026 recruiting breakout under James Franklin continues to grow as the Hokies landed a major commitment from four-star WR Davion Brown out of Richmond.
He is now the 11th of 12 new commits for James Franklin and the highest-rated in-state commit that the Hokies have. Brown's commitment comes days after he took an official visit to Blacksburg this past weekend.
He gives VT four aggregate top 15 in-state recruits for this class along with four-star OT Thomas Wilder, three-star LB Mathieu Lamah, and three-star DL T-Ron Richardson.
Here is the rundown on all the new commits for the Hokies, eight of whom were at one time committed to Penn State during this recruiting cycle.
- 4* QB Troy Huhn
- 4* RB Messiah Mickens
- 4* WR Davion Brown
- 4* TE Pierce Petersohn
- 4* OT Thomas Wilder
- 3* OT Roseby Lubintus
- 3* OT Marlen Bright
- 3* OT Maddox Cochrane
- 3* IOL Benjamin Eziuka
- 3* DL Garrett Witherington
- 3* DL T-Ron Richardson
- 3* LB Mathieu Lamah
Wilder, Cochrane, Witherington, and Richardson are the four who were not previously committed to Franklin at Penn State at one point. Wilder was a former VT commit who had decommitted after Brent Pry's dismissal, Cochrane had decommitted from Wisconsin a couple weeks before choosing VT, Witherington was a direct flip from Kentucky to the Hokies, and Richardson decommitted from Oklahoma and committed to VT one day later.
Brown is a massive get for the Hokies, especially a recruiting cycle where the Hokies had surprisingly not done well wide receivers. His addition continues a trend of the Hokies consistently land some or all of the high three-star to four-star wide receivers in the Commonwealth of Virginia over the past few years. He also strengthens a WR room that James Franklin will likely look to largely retain in the coming weeks.
This is also a massive in-state statement for Franklin to land a consensus top 10 recruit who has been a four-star for the entire cycle. Brown being a previous PSU commit certainly helped, but this is still a strong statement for Franklin to make early in his tenure.
